This might not be the most original blog post, but sometimes this is important for me to remember! Given the work that goes into producing music, it can be hard to deal with when a track or release either falls unexpectedly flat or gets negative feedback. Ignoring negative feedback definitely isn’t the answer – there is always much more to learn. However, I think neither is dwelling on it, which I find easy to do.
Music can’t be reduced to following a set of rules, and every listener has their own perspective and is approaching any track from a different angle. It’s impossible to please everyone and it’s a mistake to try. The important thing is to move on, get the most I can out of any feedback and focus on moving the music forward- without forcing it when inspiration really isn’t there. Over the time I’ve been releasing music on the internet I’ve found on a number of occasions, with hindsight, that I have deceived myself about aspects of a track, particularly when there is pressure (self-imposed or not) to release something, and this can be true of both technical aspects and also the overall impression that a track gives. Although perfectionism can be painful, I’m constantly learning that it’s best not to ignore any doubt, even if it doesn’t seem important at the time. Some people can work to deadlines, but I think music can’t be rushed. Personally, I need to step back from music before releasing it, and if it’s not absolutely 100% (in terms of something I am happy with), if there is anything that I feel isn’t quite right, it shouldn’t be released. This can be a difficult lesson to learn- but I think the most important thing is- don’t compromise.
At the end of the day, (particularly given the state of the music industry!), and whatever it costs to make, this is not a career, and I make music for self-expression above anything else. If people enjoy it, or even better, occasionally buy it*, that is a great thing and makes me feel that it is more worthwhile, but it’s not the primary reason why I make music. For a long time when I started no-one heard any tracks, I composed music because I enjoyed it and for no other reason. Music can take me somewhere else when I’m making it even more effectively than when I’m listening. I think that whatever level an artist has reached, this is still the best reason to produce. However, at the risk of stating the obvious, when you release music it should also have the aim of communicating something at least to some listeners, otherwise releasing it is pointless! Finding out that complete strangers enjoy and appreciate something you have created is always exhilarating. It’s the challenge of achieving the two aims of expression and communication, without one of these aims defeating the other, that keeps driving me to improve.
Because of this, it’s still never easy putting stuff out there, and it can feel quite isolated at times when music is released with little apparent response. Positive feedback is always great.
(*Free vs paid d/ls is another very long, blog post. I think illegal downloads are not a good thing.)
Yep I can relate to this! I’m quite a perfectionist when I’m about to release something. I’m glad I can work under pressure because nothing goes out when it’s not 100% OK.
So if hard work could mean many listeners, that would be great! But it just isn’t that simple! There’s a massive flood of music out there! So to get your music noticed, means a lot of hard work on top of the hard work making your music.
And the moment you don’t feel for promoting it anymore…
I agree, promoting is really hard, and wears you down. At the moment I’ve stepped back from promoting too much, in particular I’m taking a break from places like facebook and only really using twitter at the moment. I’d like to focus more on making music.
It occurs to me that truly constructive criticism is recognisable by a feeling of inspiration and interest in what is being said, even when not actually complimentary to our stuff – an intuitive sense that what is being said is actually useful to our ongoing development. I personally find that some people have a tendency to claim any negative thing they say is ‘constructive criticism’ when really it is a crude vent against something that doesn’t agree with their personal taste. To loosely quote a well known film critic I was once married to (!), it’s pretty useless criticising a piece of fruit for being an apple instead of the orange you happen to be craving a the time. In the end, giving truly helpful criticism to an artist may be a bit of an art in itself.
I agree completely, it’s easy to say what you think, it’s much more difficult to say something useful!
Good post.. I always think the very best artistic creations are the least contrived, i.e. the least influenced by peer pressure or music industry trends etc. And often we forget that some of the critics are not necessarily “right” – it’s just their opinion – and even then is sometimes lacking depth or understanding of the music.
Yes, I think many of my favourite artists are also the ones that really seem to be making music for the sake of the music and not to be fashonable, popular, fit in a particular genre. It’s the right approach I think…
Glad you liked the post btw! Cool this is getting so many responses 🙂
I came to just see if I could comment, but enjoyed reading this blog entry. The challenge artists face by, of necessity, being receptive creatures in an assertive world….it’s difficult. I started my own blog (after years of ranting against blogs) to try to work out some of that via words and pictures. I’m not sure that my own blog is any good, but working out those challenges in order to move past them…that’s been very good. Sorry if this sounds like it’s “all about me.” I really am responding to your blog. Oh — and letting you see that people are able to comment now!
Thanks- will have to check out your blog. I definitely found with this blog that it helped me work out what I actually felt about those 1-line comments dismissing a track I spent weeks on! It’s hard to be receptive to criticism sometimes, but it’s important to try to filter out the useful messages.
A few people have told me they have been having problems posting comments (503 error)- sorry about that. This afternoon the whole website was moved to a new server at the website host which seems to have fixed the problem, as far as I can tell. Please let me know if you are still having issues.
Just slightly updated my original blog post on #music dealing with criticism and motivation. http://t.co/SlY9Es0 Thanks for the comments!
@northcape Good weblog post on why to make music. http://t.co/sphTI7K. Tor me, sharing one’s songs is fun to do.
"Why make #music?" by @northcape – http://t.co/iXgSgYa – an indeed very interesting #blog posting ! ( via @pinklogik btw 😉 #feedback
Very good blog post! RT @northcape: To expand on earlier tweets – therapeutic blog post abt dealing w/ criticism 😉 http://t.co/m4bydEI